Once There’s Time

It has been a while since my last post, mostly because I’ve been so busy with work – which I never complain about – but also because I’ve been spending time on a rewrite of my WIP, and putting it through the Beta-reading process, ten of whom have returned their feedback, which I’m currently processing. That in itself is exhilarating. I always advise clients to exploit the Beta phase to its fullest, seeing it as something of an essential aspect of the developmental process, and I’m seeing that happen for myself now, fully appreciating the benefits of their varied opinions on a story that is very close to my heart.

This novel, Runaround, is the first of three standalones I’m hoping to put out into the world, starting this year, all going well. I wrote it in what feels like another lifetime, and it encapsulates my impressions of how things were in my late teens, back in the early eighties. It was a time before real-life swept me up and took me to another world full of responsibility, realisation, and duty. I always wrote, through school and my early working life, tinkering with poetry, stories, and even the odd play, but when I ventured into long fiction, that allowed me to take a deeper dive into ideas that had lingered in my head for an age. At one stage, I found myself with time on my hands, and I took full advantage of it to write Runaround’s first draft – a thoroughly invigorating experience. But then life, as it does, kicked into gear again, and the manuscript sat snoozing in the proverbial drawer for many years. It was only after I’d written the other two novels that I took it out and figured it merited at least a rewrite to see if it had real legs.

From Beta feedback, it looks like it does, which I’m delighted about. While it’s pure fiction, elements of it reflect the younger me, and each time I work on it, it’s like being back with friends of old. And social media, for all its ills, has allowed me to remain connected with some of those I may have used as templates for certain characters. It’s quite amusing to see the mature adults these old friends and foes turned into. Some, unfortunately, are no longer with us, but they lived their lives to the full, even those who left us quite young.

Once the Beta phase is complete, I’ll send it to an editor colleague who will put it through its paces, then the final rewrite will see it ready for blast off. In the meantime, my cover will be designed, and I have my eye on a new Irish Indie publisher I plan to approach in the near future to see if we will match up. I’m nervous about my darling finally making its way out there, but I’m also excited. My professional work is my work, so to speak, and self-publishing my novels can be seen as something of a vanity project, with me being content in myself to see them out in the vastness of the literary world, being read, and possibly even enjoyed. That, for me, would be more than enough. And then there’s the next novel. Yep, once there’s time, the pages can be filled.